Plug closure



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PLUG CLOSURE Filed Aug. 29. 1950 j g INVENTORS,

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R h r S t a, p war 2. DJ OIWMI ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 15 1933 PLUG CLOSURE Wilbur H. Armacost, New York, N. Y., and Ralph M. Swartz, Bogota, N. J., assignors to The Superheater Company, New York, N. Y.

Application August 29, 1930. Serial No. 478,604

Claims. (Cl. 137-76) Our invention relates to closure operating means and. aims to provide an arrangement for holding a plug firmly against a seat and which permits removal and replacement of the plug in minimum time.

Pipe stills and other common types of fluid heaters have large numbers of joints which must be closed tightly when in use to prevent leakage of fluid under high pressure and which must be opened from time to time for cleaning the inner surface of the tubes. The quicker the individual joints can be broken and remade, the less time the apparatus need remain out of use for cleaning and inspection. In typical apparatus the plugs are forced against their seats by threaded bolts which are operated by long handled wrenches to obtain sufficient leverage for making the joints sufliciently tight. The long handled wrenches are, however, clumsy so that they can not be handled quickly and the'operators of pipe stills and like apparatus have long desired an arrangement for the purpose in question adapted to be set up by less clumsy tools.

It is common, moreover, in pipe stills and like apparatus to give the seats and plugs a very gradual taper so that they wedge together with very high pressure. Difficulty, therefore, is often experienced in removing the plugs from their seats, thusfurther extending the time the apparatus is out of use. j

It is an object of our invention to provide an arrangement for overcoming the above mentioned difliculties.

The novel features of our invention will be pointed out in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, together with further objects and advantages, 'will best be understood from the following detailed I description of e" closure embodying'ou'r invention, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is an elevational view, partly in section, illustrating an H-type fitting connecting the ends of two tubes such. as are ,usedin pipe stills and like apparatus. a t

Fig. 2 is an end view, partlyinsection, of. the arrangement shown inFig. 1, the'section being taken on the line 2- -2 of i 1.,

Fig. 3 is a sectional. view on'an enlarged scale of a cam member appearing in 1.

Fig. 4 isa sectional viewon an enlarged scale of the plug shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary elevation of the plug shown in Figs. 1and4- V Referring to the drawing more'iii'detail, 10 and return bend and is illustrated as an H-type fitting into which the ends of tubes 10 and 12 are rolled and which has an inner passage 16 through which fluid may flow from one tube to the other. To permit cleaning or inspection of the interior of the two tubes 10 and 12, fitting 14 has apertures therein in alinement with the tubes 10 and 12, one of said apertures being shown in Fig. 1 as defined by an inwardly tapering seat 18 and closed by a plug 20 having a tapered surface 19 complemental to that of seat 18 and "0 adapted to cooperate therewith to close an aperture in the fitting 14. For forcing plug 20 against seat 18, we have illustrated an arrangement known in part, but the known parts of which, however, form a part of our novel combination. known arrangement just mentioned comprises an outwardly projecting skirt 22 having internal lugs 24, 24 adapted to cooperate with a yoke member 26 which carries a threaded bolt 28 therein for applying pressure to the plug 2 When in the operative position shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the ends of the yoke piece 26 engage the inner faces of the lugs 24 to resist the strain set up by the bolt 28.

Instead of having the bolt 28 bear directly against the plug 20 as in the usual arrangement, we interpose between the irmer end of bolt- 28 and the outer end of the plug 20 a cam piece 30. The outer face or end of part 30 is shown as recessed at 32 to receive the end of bolt 28 and its inner face or end isformed into a helix 34 extending entirely around it near the outer edge'of the piece. Helix34 works against a complemental helix 36 whichis formed on and ex and 30 are cut away or relieved so that the radial Width of the surfaces 34 and 36 is not great. The parts 20 and 30, moreover, have one a central projection 42 and the other a centralrecess 44 adapted, to fit together to center one with respect to the other so that the surfaces 34 and 36 6 can be quickly brought into proper operating relationship in assembling the apparatus. It a I will be seen, therefore,that a plug 20, .ln accord ance with our invention, maybe forced against threads'on the parts 26 and 28, but also by the The helical surfaces 34 and 36 on the parts 20 and 30.

It is anticipated that, after the parts have been assembled somewhat loosely by hand, the bolt 28 will be set up by means of a wrench of moderate size and length which can be revolved rapidly and the plug 20 will then be forced further against its seat by turning the cam piece 30, leaving little, if any, work to be done on bolt 28 with a long, heavy wrench. For turning the cam piece 30, such piece is provided with a finger 46 which projects laterally through a slot in the skirt 22 having side edges 48, 48. A slot such as that having edges 48 permits the arm 46 to project laterally, as shown, beyond the skirt 22 where it may be struck readily by a hammer to turn piece 30 forcibly and thereby to wedge lug 20 snugly against seat 18. The slot having edges 48 may be such as to permit the arm 46 to turn from 30 to 90 degrees, depending upon the requirements of the installation. In order to economize space, the slot for arm 46 is so placed that the arm 46 lies substantially in the plane of passage 16 and projects in the direction from pipe 10 toward pipe 12.

The angle of the surfaces 34 and 36 to their axis of rotation should, of course, be less than the angle of friction of steel when parts 20 and 30 are of steel, as is usually the case. When other material is used for these parts the angle should be designed so that'it' will not exceed the angle of friction for the material used. It will be seen that the radius of the surfaces 36 and 34 can be made much greater than that of the bolt 28 in the yoke 26 on account of the large size of parts 20 and 30 compared to part 28 and, for a given angle of inclination to the axis of rotation, the pitch of the surfaces 34 and 36 can therefore be much coarser than that of the bolt 28 so that by turning the part 30 through a given angle, the plug 20 will be moved a much greater distance with respect to its seat than can be done by turning the bolt 28 through the same angle, assuming a somewhat similar angle of inclination to the axis of rotation for the helical surfaces of both the part 30 and the bolt 28. As the wedging effect of the two helical surfaces depends upon the angle of inclination, it will be seen that, for a given pressure on the plug 20, our arrangement permits the plug to be forced against its seat much more .rapidly than if the entire movement were produced by a bolt such as 28.

In order that the plug 20 may be removed from the tapered seat 18 with maximum rapidity, we have shown plug 20 as having thereon a laterally extending arm 50 which normally is spaced from the outer surface 52 of the fitting 14 by an amount 54 permitting the insertion of a pry between the parts '50 and 14 to force the plug 20 away from its seat. In order to prevent any tendency of the plug 20 to turn when cam 30 is turned by a hammer, the arm 50 can be arranged also to cooperate with edges 48, 48' which define the inner portion of the slot before mentioned as having the edges 48, the edges 48 being set closer together than the edges 48 to keep the arm 50 from turning.

It will be understood that the clean-out aperture for tube 12 has a closure operating means the same as that described in connection with tube 10 and also having an arm 46 projecting toward arm 46 of the closure described above, so that the arm 46 for the closure associated with tube 12 also lies substantially in the plane of passage 16, but projects in the direction from tube 12 toward tube 10. Both arms therefore lie within the contour of the fitting 14, there being no waste of space due to projections outside of such a contour.

We claim:

1. The combination of a closure and an operating apparatus therefor comprising two helical forcing means adapted to act in series against said closure and one of said means having a greater diameter than the other and both having an angle of inclination less than the angle of friction for the materials of which they are made, and the parts of the combination being constructed and arranged so that the one of said means of less diameter can exert pressure on the closure irrespective of the angular position of the other of said means.

I 2. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 and in which the two forcing means act in alinement.

3. The combination of a closure and an operating apparatus therefor comprising two sets of cam surfaces adapted to act in series against closure and one set having a coarse action relatively to the other, both of said sets of surfaces having angles of inclination less than the angles of friction for the materials of which they are made, and the parts of the combination being constructed and arranged so that the set of surfaces having the finer action can exert pressure on said closure irrespective of the relative positions of the surfaces having the coarser action.

4. An apparatus as set forth in claim 3 and in which the two sets of surfaces act in alinement.

5. The combination of a closure and an operating apparatus therefor comprising two sets of relatively movable engaging helical surfaces, one set having a relatively large pitch and the other a relatively small pitch, both of 'said sets having angles of inclination less than the angles of friction for the materials of which they are made, and the parts of the combination being so constructed and arranged that the set having the relatively smaller pitch can exert pressure on said closure irrespective of the angular position of the surface of the set'having the relatively larger pitch.

6. The combination of a closure and an operating apparatus therefor comprising a bolt arranged to bear against a cam member, said bolt and cam member adapted to actuate a plug and said cam member having a laterally projecting arm adapted to receive a hammer blow, said bolt and cam member having angles of inclination less than their angles of friction, and the parts of the combination being constructed and arranged so that said bolt can exert pressure on said closure irrespective of the angular position of said arm.

'7. The combination of a fitting, a pair of parallel pipes connected therewith and having a passage therein for connecting said pipes, said fitting having apertures in axial alinement with said pipes, plugs for closing said apertures, and means individual to each of said plugs for forcing it into its associated aperture, and including a cam member having an arm extending in a plane at right angles to the axis of the one of said pipes associated therewith, the arms of said means extending toward each other, the parts of the combination being constructed and arranged to permit each of said arms to be struck by a hammer when desired, and threaded bolts for forcing said cam members against their associated plugs, each such bolt and cam member said bolts can put pressure on its associated plug irrespective of the angular position of the arm on its associated cam, the fitting having skirts arranged to limit the angular movement of the arms.

8. The method of assembling a fitting having a clean-out aperture and a plug therefor, and having a removable abutment in alinement with said plug, a screw in said abutment in alinement with said plug, and a helical cam intermediate said screw and plug having an angle of inclination less than its angle of friction, and having a short arm arranged to be struck by a hammer when desired which comprises the steps of setting up said screw with a light wrench to bring pressure on said cam and plug, and striking said arm a blow to turn said cam and to thereby increase the pressure on said plug.

ratus for said closure comprising two sets of 0am surfaces arranged to act in alinement against said closure, one of said sets having a coarse action relative to the other and both sets having constant angles of inclination which are less than the angles of friction for the materials of which they are made.

WILBUR H. ARMACOST. RALPH M. SWARTZ. 

